If successful, Binyamin Netanyahu's first talks as Israeli prime minister with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak at Sharm el Sheikh Monday, May 11, could mark the epic birth of Israel's first alliance with two key Arab nations, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, in order to stop Iran - possibly for concessions on the Palestinian issue to them rather than Washington. Israel rejects the US proposition to trade off a two state-solution against a diminished Iran's existential threat to Israel.Read debkafile's exclusive background analysis below.

The widely anticipated address by Pope Benedict XVI at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Center in Jerusalem was too general, theological and abstract to ease strains with the Jewish people.He rekindled the Perpetual Flame in the Hall of Remembrance, laid a memorial wreath and met survivors and non-Jews honored for risking their lives to save Jews from the Nazis. But when he rose to speak, the pontiff spoke offered no apology as did his predecessor, nor did he mention Germany and the Nazis.

Sgt. Noam Adin Rechter, 20, from Mitzpe Netufa, was on operational duty, searching for terrorists in the West Bank village of Bir Zeit Thursday, May 7, when his unit was confronted by a hostile group of stone-throwing Palestinians. During the arrest of five of their number, the soldier's rifle inadvertently fired a bullet inflicting a head wound from which he did not recover.

Addressing the AIPAC Israeli lobby conference by satellite early Tuesday. May 5, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu offered peace talks "the sooner the better." Israel's president Shimon Peres met US president Barack Obama at the White House Tuesday, May 5. Part of their conversation was tete-a-tete.He told the AIPAC conference earlier: Iran is developing a nuclear option "even though it is threatened by no-one." Tehran is arming Hizballah and Hamas "to impose its alien and violent agenda on the Middle East."

Seven Israeli Arabs and two juveniles were arraigned at Haifa district court Thursday, April 30, on charges of plotting terrorist attacks and kidnapping Israeli soldiers during Israel's Gaza operation four months ago.Nine bombs ready for detonation were found in their homes and manuals on bomb-making and abduction techniques. The suspects had been practicing those tactics and were apprehended shortly before they went into action.

The population of southwestern Israel will remain vulnerable to attack after eight years should Hamas revive the Qassam missile blitz from the Gaza Strip. Defense minister Ehud Barak, after finally accepting that the Iron Dome still under development will not be up to the task, applied to Washington to purchase Vulcan Phalanx systems worth $25 million each. Chances of Washington approval are faint.

An exhaustive probe carried out by the Israeli military has failed to turn up a single case of an Israeli serviceman on land, sea or air, knowingly shooting a Palestinian civilian during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza which ended in January. This was part of the interim report on the IDF special inquiry, submitted Wednesday, April 22, by deputy chief of staff Maj. Gen. Dan Harel.

A prestigious Washington think tank - the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) - has concluded by means of detailed research and analysis that Israel is militarily capable of destroying Iran's nuclear program. This view is shared by the Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff.Details from the CSIS findings, first disclosed in DEBKA-Net-Weekly 391, appear in an Exclusive Report and map below with debkafile updates.To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click DEBKA-Net-Weekly.com?ref=001">HERE.

By submitting his resignation as Palestinian prime minister Saturday, March 7, the pro-American Salam Fayyad removes a major roadblock to a power-sharing accord between the extremist Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah, which governs the West Bank. This accord if concluded would open the door to Hamas domination of the West Bank in the same way as the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamists threw the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority out of Gaza two years ago. His action, three days after US secretary of state Hillary Clinton held well-publicized talks with Fayyad and Abbas in Ramallah, comes as a serious blow to America prestige and is one up for Iran and its Palestinian proxy. The Palestinian prime minister, a former World Bank economist in Washington, saw that in a unity government, his only function would be to act as a respectable non-terrorist address for the receipt of the $5.5 billion dollars the international donors meeting in Sharm e-Sheikh on March 2 approved for Gaza reconstruction.

debkafile's political sources reveal Binyamin Netanyahu's planned launch of his second term as prime minister with a flurry of diplomacy. Thursday, April 2, trips to Cairo and Jordan had already been scheduled for talks with president Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah II, followed by a visit to Washington to meet President Barack Obama and to Moscow for talks with prime minister Vladimir Putin. Netanyahu is considering becoming the first Israeli prime minister to visit the Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

Judge Advocate General Brig.-Gen Avichai Mandelblit decided March 30 to close the Military Police probe into allegations that Israeli soldiers committed human rights violations and abuses during Operation Cast Lead the IDF against Hamas last January. The advocate general, established that the charges rested purely on hearsay and rumor, generated and then blown up to serve an agenda rather than being based on evidence.

Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi, IDF chief of staff, was invited for talks with the Chairman of the US chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen Friday, April 3. Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi voiced horror over the axe-murder by a Palestinian of the 12-year old Israel boy Shlomo Nativ outside his home at Bat Haayin Thursday, April 2. Calling Binyamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on his new government, Berlusconi stressed the importance of strong relations between their countries. German Chancellor Angela Merkel joined the world leaders congratulating Netanyahu. British foreign secretary David Miliband phoned foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman with wishes for his success and hope for an early meeting.

Shlomo Nativ, 13, died of the wounds inflicted by one or more Palestinian terrorists on an axe-wielding rampage in Bat Ayin, a community in the West Bank Gush Etzion Bloc. A second boy, aged 7, was seriously injured in the attack. Residents opened fire on the terrorists who managed to get away. Heavy security reinforcements were rushed to the area. They set up roadblocks and surrounded neighboring Arab villages to search for the killer or killers. All the communities in the area were put on terror alert. The attack occurred on the second day of school holiday for the Passover festival.

A senior US official accompanying president Barack Obama to the G20 summit in London made this remark Wednesday April 1, in response to a statement from Avigdor Lieberman on his first day as foreign minister. Lieberman stressed that the incoming Netanyahu government was not bound by commitments made at the US-sponsored 2007 Annapolis conference for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and was committed only to the Middle East road map. US and Russian presidents call Binyamin Netanyahu with congratulations on new government.

Introducing Israel's 32nd government to the Knesset, March 31, Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel faced two major perils on two fronts - the economy and security. Neither was caused by our actions, but the outcome of both will depend on how Israel acts.Israel seeks peace with the entire Arab and Muslim world, but continues to be threatened by the forces of Islamic extremists.

The incoming Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has armed himself with an inner cabinet of 7-8 professional for decision-making on diplomatic, military, security and strategic matters, debkafile's military sources report. Hawkish-leaning in outlook, they will provide him with material for decisions on such weighty issues as a military strike against Iran's nuclear sites and navigating his government's course with the Obama administration.debkafile's military and intelligence sources examine the format of this new forum in an exclusive report below.

Designated prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu simply pushes away any suggestion of pressure on Israel from the Obama administration in Washington, while Ehud Olmert has said a few days before bowing out that he has left the Iranian nuclear threat to the next government.Olmert forgot to mention that his government's policy of letting Israel be sidelined on the existential Iranian issue and knuckling under to the US lead allowed Iran to build up momentum in its race for a nuclear bomb. Olmert "forgot" to mention that Israel is no longer in a position to stop Iran's nuclear program.

Duped again by a Hamas promise to negotiate a long-term truce, Israel reacted by stepping up its air attacks over the Gaza Strip from Friday, Feb. 13, to hold down a fresh upsurge of Palestinian violence. After spreading false reports that an 18-month truce and a deal for the release of the captive Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit were "hours away", Hamas jerked the carpet from under the Cairo talks in spite of Israel's over-generous concessions. Last week, Israel was persuaded by the Egyptian intelligence minister Gen. Omar Suleiman to let Hamas leader Mahmud A-Zahar travel from Gaza to Cairo, Damascus and Qatar on the understanding that he would override hardline Khaled Meshaal and sign an extended truce deal.Instead of signing, Hamas used the time gained to restock its arsenal after the beating it took from Israel's Gaza operation last month and regroup for a fresh cross-border offensive.

Last September, two former Israeli prime ministers who failed to survive full term made common, cross-party cause for a pact which is now coming into its own, say debkafile's political analyst. Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu can count on heading a new government in less than two weeks, retaining Labor's Ehud Barak in defense if he survives the showdown this week with his Labor party.Both see Israel's most acute problems as being the global economic meltdown and a nuclear-armed Iran.Netanyahu agrees to line up behind Barak on national security while the latter endorses the prime minister's program to haul the economy out of recession.

Israel's Labor party voted to join the government headed by Likud leader, Binyamin Netanyahu Tuesday night, March 24. Seven Knesset members and the young section tried to torpedo the conference in a tempestuous revolt against Labor leader Ehud Barak's partnership accord with Netanyahu. Out of 1,191 members, 57.9 percent backed Barak, 42 percent voted against him.Continuation of the internal Labor revolt continues could pare his majority down from 66 to 60-61 deputies, including Israel Beitenu and Shas, and augur a split in Barak's party.